Our house is on fire. Join the resistance: Do no harm/take no shit. My idiosyncratic and confluent bricolage of progressive politics, the collaborative commons, next generation cognitive neuroscience, American pragmatism, de/reconstruction, dynamic systems, embodied realism, postmetaphysics, psychodynamics, aesthetics. It ain't much but it's not nothing.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Senator Sanders on social security

He says it best so I'll let him say it:

Republicans hate Social Security because it has been an extraordinary
success and has done exactly what it was designed to do. Since its
implementation in 1935, Social Security has lowered the poverty rate
amongst seniors from about 50% to less than 10%. And today it also
covers 11 million Americans living with disabilities including 3 million
children, making it the most successful social program in our country’s
history.

However, the success of Social Security has only emboldened conservatives’ attempts at privatizing and cutting.
In fact, currently in Congress, members of both the House and Senate
are attempting to divide the American people, telling them that unless
we cut benefits today, they won’t be there for future generations.

Let me be clear. Social Security has not contributed one nickel to our deficit or our national debt.
It has a $2.8 trillion surplus. It will be able to pay 100 percent of
promised benefits to every eligible recipient for the next 18 years,
just as it has done for the past 79 years. And, all we need to do is ask
millionaires and billionaires to start paying their fair share and we
not only extend the life of the Social Security trust fund, we can
afford to expand benefits for millions of Americans.

Today, February 10, marks the day when the top one percent of wage earners in America stop paying into Social Security. This
is because, right now, only the first $118,500 of a wage earner’s
income is subject to the payroll tax that funds Social Security.

To recognize this day when millionaires and billionaires stop paying
into Social Security and to respond to attacks from my colleagues on our
earned Social Security benefits, I am holding a briefing with Social
Security Works co-founder Nancy Altman and the Strengthen Social
Security Coalition.

The briefing will focus on rising inequality in America and its impact
on Social Security. Due to stagnant wages, 94 percent of Americans pay
Social Security tax on all of their income, but the wealthiest 6 percent
do not. We must reverse this trend for the future or our economy and
the future of Social Security.